Day-long effort restores power lines after crash

Pacific Gas and Electric crews worked round-the-clock from Thursday afternoon and into early Friday evening in an effort to restore power to some 1,500 north Vacaville customers after an SUV struck and sheared off an electrical pole near the intersection of Interstate 505 and Midway Road.

By noon Friday, traffic came to a standstill on the interstate's northbound lanes, south of Midway to Vaca Valley Parkway, as power company employees pulled several new black electrical lines across the freeway and raised them into place, said Paul Moreno, a PG&E spokesman based in Chico.

The interstate was closed for 30 minutes until the works crews -- some of nearly 30 that responded to the accident during the 24-hour period -- raised several power poles in position, including the new one, and attached the lines, then "connected them to the (state's power) grid," he said.

Moreno said that after the 4:15 p.m. Thursday accident, crews managed to re-connect, by re-routing power, some 700 affected customers, then shortly afterward restored power to another 700 customers as early-evening temperatures hovered well above 90 degrees. Work continued into midafternoon Friday, and PG&E crews restored power to a remaining handful of customers, he added.

The accident closed the interstate's northbound lanes for several hours Thursday between Allendale Road and Vaca Valley Parkway. Additionally, the downed power lines sparked a fire that spread over 3 acres, said Capt. Dean Sarley of the Dixon Fire Department, one of several public safety agencies, including the Vacaville Fire Department, to respond to the scene.

"The power lines were down everywhere and we couldn't get our equipment around it," he recalled, adding that his department responded with four vehicles, seven firefighters, and used 3,500 gallons of water to douse the flames.

California Highway Patrol officers, who also responded to the accident, released no information by press time Friday about the identity of the SUV driver, charges and injuries, if any, or the suspected cause of the accident.